Mobile wireless devices are capable of accessing the Internet from both private and community/public wireless local area networks (WLANs), e.g., Wi-Fi™ networks through a residential gateway. Before a given mobile wireless device is able to access the Internet through the residential gateway, the wireless device needs to be authorized and authenticated, and then assigned an Internet Protocol (IP) address for an Internet session.
The residential gateway is a focal point of this process and is configured to implement a variety of different communication protocols. The residential gateway may communicate with an authorization, authentication, and accounting (AAA) server to authenticate/authorize the wireless device in accordance with one or more authentication protocols, such as the Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS). RADIUS operates in association with the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP). The residential gateway may also communicate with a local mobility anchor (LMA) in accordance with an IP tunneling protocol, such as Proxy Mobile IP version 6 (PMIPv6), to establish a PMIPv6 tunnel with the LMA. The residential gateway may also communicate with the wireless device in accordance with the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). The number and complexity of the different protocols that need to be supported by the residential gateway increases the complexity and cost of the residential gateway.
A method comprising: at a gateway preconfigured to establish an Internet Protocol (IP) tunnel with a default local mobility anchor on behalf of a mobile node: receiving from the mobile node an Internet access request including a mobile identifier and authorization and authentication protocol information sending to the default local mobility anchor an IP tunnel request to establish an IP tunnel, the IP tunnel request including the mobile identifier and the authorization and authentication protocol information; receiving from the default local mobility anchor a tunnel redirect message to redirect the IP tunnel from the default local mobility anchor to a serving local mobility anchor; and in response to the tunnel redirect message, authenticating the mobile node and establishing an IP tunnel with the serving local mobility anchor through which the mobile node communicates, the authenticating the mobile node and establishing an IP tunnel including: sending to the serving local mobility anchor an IP tunnel request including the mobile node identifier and the authorization and authentication protocol information; receiving from the serving local mobility anchor an authentication challenge formatted as a Proxy-Binding acknowledgement message extended to include the authorization and authentication information; sending to the serving local mobility anchor an authentication response formatted as a Proxy-Binding Update message extended to include the mobile identifier and the authorization and authentication information; and receiving from the serving local mobility anchor a tunnel request acknowledgement that includes the mobile identifier and the authorization and authentication information.